All Wounds (5 page)

As Rebecca sat a mug of tea in front of her, Nana—Martha—spoke.

“I never wanted you to know, but I see now I shall have to tell you, before Sydney leaves with Ryan,” Nana said in pained resignation. “Once he leaves, he’ll take his power with him and I’ll forget myself again. I’m sorry, Rebecca. I’m sorry for what’s become of me, what you have to endure day after day.”

“Nana—” Rebecca began to protest.

Nana held up a hand. “Please. Let me talk and don’t interrupt.” She took a sip of tea and swallowed hard.

Rebecca sat down in her own chair, cradling her hands around her mug in a futile effort to warm them.

“I should have told you all these things long ago, but after Helene died—” Nana closed her eyes for a moment, then smiled at Rebecca.

“No matter what I might not want you to know about things,
I
still know about them. I just can’t quite remember everything. This happens, when Healers reach the age of sixty. While Syd’s here I’m able to use his power to clear my mind, but he won’t be here long enough for me to tell you all I need to,” Nana said. “I’m sorry for not telling you these things before.

Syd’s right. I’ve likely done more harm than good trying to protect you from your birthright with ignorance. I should have expected the war to start again, but the peace has held for so long... I forget that mortal time means so little to Ethereals. I suppose I was hoping you’d be grown and gone before—” Nana stopped herself and shook her head before going on. “But, you’re not, so now we must deal with that.”

“Before...what?” Rebecca asked. She bit her bottom lip.

Nana reached across the table and took one of Rebecca’s hands in hers. “Rebecca...you’re a Healer.”

Well...that didn’t sound so bad
, Rebecca thought. In fact, something inside her leapt at the word, and a kind of heat spread through her limbs. Her cold hands were suddenly warm, and she smiled. Still—

“A Healer? Like...a doctor?” Rebecca asked.

“In a manner of speaking,” Nana replied and released Rebecca’s hand.

“You were born with the gift to channel power to your own use...that is, to share your life’s force with those who are in need, and to heal those beings thought to be immortal. ‘Immortal’ does not mean ‘invulnerable’, little dove.

Your friend was bitten, very nearly lethally, by a hellhound, who no doubt attacked Syd’s clan. Vampires are a delicacy to hellhounds because they have no soul. It was only Syd’s bite, the final bite of a vampire, that saved Ryan.

I don’t agree with it, but it saved your friend’s life.” Rebecca tried to process everything her nana was saying. It was like talking to someone else, someone completely different than the grandmother she had grown up with.

Nana was a...a what? A healer of vampires? And I’m supposedly one, too?

“So...” Rebecca said slowly. “We’re a family of...vampire healers?” Nana laughed and took another sip of her tea. “More or less,” she said after a moment. “Sometimes more, sometimes less. It’s not just vampires. We help the hellhounds, too. Goblins, ghosts, specters, shades, werewolves—demons are really the only ones who shun us and refuse to ask a mortal for help.” Goblins? The word brought a flash of something to Rebecca’s mind, and she recognized it as what she’d seen that afternoon peeking in the door to the girl’s bathroom at school. Those...were real? All the things she’d been seeing...those had been real things? She thought back over the past few...how long had she been seeing things? Months? A long time, anyway. First little weird things in the garden that she dismissed as birds, then spiders behav-ing strangely—looking like they were waving at her and so on, then stuff with huge eyes peeking out behind shelves and bushes and even people’s pet doors. What were they?

“We observe neutrality,” Nana went on. “We don’t take sides. We have the gift of healing those who cannot heal themselves—those who need power and the force of life that comes from a living soul like ours. Unfortunately, by using our life force in this way, it’s depleted quickly. It gets used up by the time we reach sixty.
If
we reach sixty. A lot of us don’t.”

“You keep saying ‘us’,” Rebecca said. “Are there more of ‘us’, then?”

“There are a few, in various parts of the world, or the ‘mortal realm’ as the Ethereals call it,” Nana replied. “A great number were killed in the last war by the very beings we try to heal. As far as I know, less than a hundred of us remain. Here, in a place of healing, the ground is neutral—wars and battles stop here. Had the hellhound who bit Ryan tonight been in need himself, we would not have denied him assistance. He would have been treated and sheltered just the same, right at the side of the one he harmed, with no further hostility between them. Once they leave here, however...that’s another matter. You are safe here as well, and your Healer’s mark grants you certain clemencies both inside and outside the boundary, but you, like the Immortals, are not invulnerable.”

“So. .now what?” Rebecca shrugged. “You’re not better, and you’re not going to get better. The only reason you’re okay right now is because that...

vampire boy is here, right? And there’s someone from my school upstairs who’s turning into a vampire himself. Are more...
people
like them going to show up? What did Syd mean when he said the ‘entry was closed’?”

“The mirror up there serves...
served
...as an entryway,” Nana said. “It was sealed after your mo—after the last truce was declared. To put it in terms you can understand, I went out of business, so to speak. It seems now, however, I need to reopen. But I’m too old. Not only do I no longer have any power of my own to share, I’m too slow. I can’t remember much.

Sydney is a powerful Master vampire, the leader of a vampire clan, and he’s the only reason I’m able to manage at the moment. When he leaves...you’ll be...burdened with me again. An old woman who has lost her mind. I’m so sorry, Rebecca. You shouldn’t be wasting your youth like this. Maybe you should look into a home for me.”

“This is your home!” Rebecca protested, leaping up from her chair. She went around the table to hug her nana tight. “You’re not going anywhere.

You’re not a burden.” She hated herself for crying but forced the words out from her tight throat, not caring that her voice was thick with tears. “You wouldn’t let them put me into a foster home when mom died, did you? I’m not going to let anyone do that to you either! If anything, I’ll...I’ll chain Syd to the wall so he can never leave! You’ll be okay again. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”

Nana gave Rebecca a squeeze. “You know that can’t happen. Syd has responsibilities just like we do, and if you really want to look after me, Rebecca...”

Rebecca pulled away a little to look at her nana. “Yes? What?” she prompted when Nana didn’t continue.

“I never wanted you to know,” Nana said again. “But I wouldn’t let them take you away, so I guess that means you’re going to be involved whether I want it or not. If you really want to look after me, Rebecca, you’re going to have to look after those I once did. If war has once again come to the Ethereal planes, and it looks like it has, then Sydney and Ryan are just the first of those who will need our...
your
help.” Rebecca’s eyes widened. “
My
help?” she squeaked. “Why my help?

What good would I be? I’m not trained!
You
said! And you said you can’t help anymore...and once Syd leaves you won’t even...”

“We’ll ask him to start your apprenticeship early,” Nana said. “Once a Healer comes of age—at seventeen—they train for a year with a repre-sentative of one of the great Ethereal clans, and then a different clan each year until the age of twenty-two. It’s usually begun with vampires because they’re the closest to mortals, and it eases a Healer into her training if she has something more like herself to accustom herself to. Now, you’re not going to have the luxury of accustoming yourself to your training. In truth you should have been learning about what you are since you were five. As it is, you’re just going to have to learn on your own, or from Syd. He can’t exactly object to training you early if I insist on it. It
is
his job.” Nana’s brow furrowed. “Ryan’s bite is...unfortunate...for him, but strangely fortunate for us. For you, rather. I could almost think...but Syd is a Master...” Rebecca looked at her grandmother as if Nana had started speaking a foreign language. None of what Nana was saying made any sense, but Rebecca felt like she should understand it. She reached to touch her grandmother’s shoulder, recalling her attention.

“You said that...before. Up there,” Rebecca said, lifting her eyes to the ceiling for a moment before looking back at her grandmother. “That we’re fortunate to have a Master here. Syd is a Master...? What’s that mean?”

“A Master vampire leads and sees to the affairs of a vampire clan.

Sydney is the Master of a great, well-respected, powerful vampire clan—

Cardoza. He was your mother’s mentor when she apprenticed the vampires.” Rebecca didn’t know much about her mother, but she certainly hadn’t thought anything about her being a veterinarian to the undead. How was she going to...?

“Oh, don’t look so dismayed, Rebecca!” Nana said. She smiled at her granddaughter. “Healing is easy once you get the hang of it. It’s inside you—a part of you. It comes as naturally as breathing after awhile, and Syd will be here to at least get you started. We’ll convince him to stay until you’re ready to work by yourself. I’m afraid I won’t be all that much help. I drain too much energy now, and can’t focus my efforts the way I used to. However, I have some books with my notes and things, and I’ll show you where I’ve kept all my herbs and special equipment. It will be a lot of work and you’ll have to learn fast, but this is in your blood, and what you were born to do.”

“Is this why I always wanted to be a doctor?” Rebecca asked, smiling a little.Nana smirked. “Very probably so,” she answered. “Now, let’s go check on Ryan. He should be over the worst by now.”

Rebecca nodded and rose to follow Nana upstairs.

They neared the linen cupboard that hid the entrance to the healing enclave. Nana reached in and pressed a large knot in the wood. It gave way at her gentle push and the shelves swung back and to the side.

They entered quietly, though Rebecca collided with Nana when the older woman stopped short.

“Rebecca,” Nana said in a calm voice. “Back slowly out of this room.” When Nana used that tone, Rebecca didn’t argue. Even though she had only heard it once or twice, she knew it was meant to be obeyed right then, without question or hesitation, and took a step back.

“I would not deny the Healer, nor her apprentice, access to her own enclave, my lady,” came a deep, rumbling voice that shook the floorboards beneath Rebecca’s sneakers.

“My apprentice is untrained, my lord, and I would wish no offense to thee,” Nana replied in that same calm voice, though Rebecca could hear the tremor in it. Whatever was in there had Nana scared to the bone.

“No offense will be taken,” the dark voice replied. “Upon my word. I have come only to see about the boy.”

“Yes, my lord,” Nana said to the voice. “Rebecca, follow me and do exactly as I do. Bow your head and keep your eyes on the floor until I tell you it’s all right to look up. Ask no questions now. They will be answered later.” Nana must have known there were about a billion questions running around in Rebecca’s head and a hundred more on her tongue just begging to be asked, to tell her to keep quiet. Rebecca took a deep breath and whispered

“’Kay,” ready to face whatever Nana was afraid of.

Here there be monsters
, Rebecca thought, remembering a line from a pirate movie she liked. But what kind of monster was it? Even if Nana hadn’t been blocking her way, she’d been told not to look, except at the floor. She noticed that Nana had bowed her own head, and remembered quickly to do the same.

Rebecca felt Nana grasp her hand tight and took a step into the room.

Once they were both out of the enclave entrance, Nana went to her knees, tugging Rebecca’s hand to follow.

She knelt beside her nana, careful to keep her eyes downcast and her head bowed.

Nana let go of her hand and put both of her own flat on the floor in front of her. Rebecca copied her.

“Bow low slowly, then don’t move,” Nana whispered before doing so herself.

Rebecca did as she was told and held the position. Breathing hard and trembling, she felt like throwing up.

“Easy, Acolyte,” she heard Sydney say. “Your own enclave, remember.” A low growl met these words, but Sydney didn’t apologize for speaking.

Rebecca felt her hair being moved and heard a long sniff. Then another.

“Raise your eyes to me, Acolyte,” the rumbling voice commanded.

“My lord—” Nana began, and Rebecca noticed Nana’s hands weren’t beside hers anymore.

“Hush,” the voice commanded, and Nana immediately fell silent.

What kind of thing could talk to Nana like that in her own house, and have
Nana obey, just like that?
Rebecca thought.

Rebecca did as she was told and slowly looked up from the floor. Her mind went blank with shock as her eyes took in the form of a very, very large black... Dog? Wolf?

She remembered that it had spoken to her. Neither dogs nor wolves could talk. She didn’t know what he was, but he was familiar, somehow...

“Hellhound,” the creature replied to her thoughts in that rumbling voice.She scrambled away from the huge black monster-dog, pressing her back against the wall with a frightened squeak, shaking from head to toe.

The hellhound seemed to enjoy her fearful reaction as they studied one another. Dark, rippling fur covered its entire form, save for a shiny black nose and a mouth full of serrated teeth that reminded Rebecca of a shark.

Its eyes were crimson and danced like a candle was inside them. Gentle red-orange flames, mixed with the occasional flash of blue, flickered at the tips of its ears, the end of its tail, and it seemed at the end of every hair on it.

Even around its feet, but the floor wasn’t scorching for some reason. The flames clung to the creature, but they didn’t seem to help lighten the terrible darkness emanating from it.